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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Faith n' Physics

Due to the overheated rhetoric of the science/religion dialogue (from both the God and no-God corner), when engaging this matter I have a new rule: Only listen to knights of the British Empire. This leaves Elton John, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and John Polkinghorne (et. al.). Among these, only the latter has (to my knowledge) spoken on the matter, and I continue to like what he says, which is well laid out in this program (for free!).

Consider that a consequence of 20th century physics, the "loosening up" of matter, opens genuine insights into the effectiveness of prayer (i.e. a Universe of perpetual variables can be influenced). Or that the the particle/wave dual-nature of light has a corollary in the divine/human dual-nature of Christ as expressed by the Council of Chalcedon. These inights would sound sophomoric coming from me, but somehow fly when coming from a respected Cambridge physicist who (surely you know) is also a priest.

Paul Davies was not bad either in the Einstein's God program, making the evident and important point that Augustine's thoughts on time (Confessions XI) are in beautiful harmony with Einstein's. But still, rules are rules, and Davies is no knight.

"The breezy style is often the work of an egocentric, the person who imagines that everything that comes to mind is of general interest and that uninhibited prose creates high spirits and carries the day."
-Strunk & White (p. 73)